Recording mechanism



Dec. 15, 1936. o. A. SHANN RECORDING MECHANISM Filed July 2) 1935INVENTOR O/LSHA/VN ar (2 71am ATTORNEY Patented Dec. 15, 1936 psi-raps'rArEs rA'rsNr orrice RECORDING MECHANISM Application July 2, 1935-,Serial No. 29,434

3 Claims.

This invention relates to a recording mechanism and particularly to arecording mechanism for use with telephone substation apparatus of theautomatic or dial type.

An object of the invention is to record at the telephone substation thetelephone numbers called or dialed from the station.

Certain telephone subscribers make a practice of keeping in memorandumform a record of 1 the calls dialed from their station, usually markingdown the numbers on a convenient pad after the complete number has beendialed or perhaps after the conversation has been terminated. Recordsprepared in this manner have been found to be somewhat unreliable,however, as the subscriber may forget to mark down a call or thetelephone may be used during the absence of the subscriber by otherpersons, who may neglect to record the calls which they make.

According to a feature of the present invention the numbers called areautomatically recorded as dialed, only the usual steps necessary inoperating the standard rotary type of calling dial being involved in theentire procedure.

In accordance with a particular embodiment of the invention, a callsender of the rotary or dial type, as described for example in ForsbergUnited States Patent 1,161,854 issued November 30, 1915, is providedwith a printing surface the number plate of the dial. This printingsurface may be in the form of a rim carried by the finger hole wheel. 'Areel carrying a supply of paper tape is provided, the free end of thetape being passed through a guiding mechanism associated with the fingerstop of the dial. A feeding mechanism for the tape and an inking rollerare also provided. It is of course well-known that the method of dialinga number by means of thestandard rotary type of call sender referred toinvolves placing a finger in the aperture of the finger hole wheelcorresponding to the digit on the number plate which is to be dialed androtating the finger hole wheel until the finger contacts the fingerstop. In accordance with the arrangement contemplated by the presentinvention the finger stop is pivoted, contact with it by the fingerbeing effective to rotate it slightly. Rotation of the finger stop iseffective to force a portion of the paper tape into contact with acharacter on the printing surface, which character is thereby printed onthe tape.

A thorough understanding of the invention and of the variousadvantageous features thereof characters of which correspond to those onthe may be gained from consideration of the following detaileddescription and the annexed drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a telephone handset mounting provided witha recording mechanism in accordance with the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a top view of the mounting shown in Fig. 1; and

Fig. 3 is a detailed view of a portion of the mechanism showingparticularly the paper tape 3 feeding and guiding arrangement.

Referring now to the drawing, there is shown in Figs. 1 and 2 atelephone handset mounting of the general type disclosed in Patent2,008,287 issued July 16, 1935 to G. R. Lum. The mounting comprises abase H and a casing or housing including a base portion 42 and apedestal portion l3. Tines Hi, l5, l6, and I! extend from the pedestalportion and define a cradle for the handle (not shown) of the handtelephone. 20 Plungers 2! and 22 are depressed when the handle is placedin position in the cradle being effective when depressed to interruptthe talk ing circuit. A rotary call sender or dial 23. which may be ofthe general type described in the Forsberg patent mentioned above ismounted onone of the sloping ends of pedestal portion l3 while a reel 2tis mounted on the opposite end of the pedestal. This reel carries asupply of paper tape upon which the numbers 30 are to be recorded. aknob 25 being provided for manually rotating the reel as desired.

The finger hole wheel of the dial is provided with a printing surface 25which is in the form of a rim extending from and rotatable with thefinger hole wheel. Embossed characters as l, 2, 3., etc. are provided onthe printing surface, these characters corresponding to the digits onthe number plate which are visible through the finger holes. Thecharacters on the printing surface are offset slightly with respect tothe associated finger holes in order that said characters will be inproper printing position when the finger stop is moved as subsequentlydescribed.

An inking roller 3! is mounted in cooperative position with respect tothe printing surface and acts to ink the characters as the finger holeWheel is rotated.

Finger stop 32 is rotatably mounted on pivot 33 while pressure roller 34and feed pawl 35 are sup- 50 ported by the finger stop being mounted onrespective pivots 36 and 31. Spring 38 is also mounted on pivot 33, thefree end of the spring normally being in engagement with a slot providedin feed pawl 35. 55

A paper guide 4| is mounted adjacent to the finger stop, the free end ofpaper tape 42 being fed through this guide.

Let us assume now, for purposes of illustration, that the number 123" isto be dialed. The subscriber inserts his finger in that aperture of thefinger hole wheel of the dial which is above 1 on the number plate androtates the finger hole wheel in a clockwise direction. The finger-stop32 is contacted by the finger of the subscriber and is moved from thepositon shown by full lines in Fig. 3 to the position shown by thedotted lines. The character 1 on printing surface 26 has been carried bythis rotation of the finger hole wheel from its normal position toprinting" position, being inked in passing by roller 3|.

Movement of finger stop 32 is effective, first, to move feed pawl 35forward, as shown by the dotted lines, paper tape 42 being moved forwarda corresponding distance due to engagement of the end of pawl 35therewith .and, second, to

- bring pressure roller 34 forward to the position shown by the dottedlines, the roller at this point forcing the paper tape into engagementwith printing surface 26. As stated abovecharacter 1 has been broughtinto printing position, i. e., the position at which the pressure rollercontacts the paper tape so that 1 is now printed on the tape.

As the subscriber removes his finger from the finger hole, the fingerhole wheel and finger stop 32 both return to their normal positions. Thesubscriber then dials 2 and then 3 the digits 2 and 3 being printed onthe tape in a manner similar to that just described. After the completenumber has been dialed and recorded, the subscriber may move finger stop32 one or more times in order to step the paper ahead so that a blankspace on the tape will separate the number last recorded from the nextnumber called. Movement of the finger stop does not, of course, resultin printing any characters on the tape so long as the finger hole wheelhas not been moved from its normal position.

While a specific embodiment of the invention has been selected fordetailed description, the invention is not, of course, restricted in itsapplication to the embodiment described. The embodiment described shouldbe considered as illustrative of the invention, rather than asrestrictive thereof.

What is claimed is:

i. A number recorder for use with automatic telephones of the typeprovided with call senders,

including a single movable finger operated wheel for actuating said callsender, printing characters carried by the peripheral edge of saidwheel, a-paper web on which said characters may be recorded, a movablefinger stop associatedwith said finger operated actuating wheel, meansmounted on said finger stop and effective upon movement thereof to causeengagement of said paper web and certain 01 said printing characters anda pawl pivotedly mounted on said finger stop with its free end inengagement with said paper web, said pawl being eflective upon movementof said finger stop to advance the paper web to a new printing position.

2. A recording device for use with automatic telephones of the typeprovided with call senders,

including 'a single rotatable finger wheel for actuating said callsender, a fiat strip attached to the peripheral edge of said wheel androtatablev therewith, printing characters on said strip, a paper tape onwhich said characters may be recorded, a finger stop associated withsaid finger wheel, said finger stop being movable, means associated withsaid finger stop and effective upon movement thereof for causingengagement of said paper tape and certain of said characters, andadditional means associated with said finger stop and in engagement withsaid paper tape effective upon movement of said finger stop to advancethe paper tape to a new printing position.

3. A recording device for use with automatic telephones of the typeprovided with call senders, including a single rotatable finger wheeladapted to be rotated by the finger of the operator to actuate said callsender, printing characters carried by the peripheral edge of saidfinger wheel, a paper strip on which said characters may be recorded, amovable finger stop adapted to be engaged by the finger of the operatorbefore the completion of each forward rotation of said finger wheel andto be moved thereby from its normal position to an advanced position,means carried by said finger stop and effective upon movement thereoffrom said normal position to said advanced position to cause engagementof said paper strip and certain of said printing characters andadditional means carried by said finger stop and engaging said paperstrip eifective upon movement of said finger stop from said normalposition to said advanced position to cause advancement of said paperstrip to a new printing position.

OSCAR A. SHANN.

